The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is examining the potential of employing a management blockchain to enable secure, private and anonymous communication with air traffic services. The prototype has already employed Hyperledger and has proven to researchers that this infrastructure would offer rapid deployment at an affordable cost. The paper published by …

“This framework features certificate authority, smart contract support, and higher-bandwidth communication channels for private information that may be used for secure communication between any specific aircraft and any particular authorized member.”

Another system planned to be launched soon, the Automatic Dependent Surveillance System (ADS-B) which will be mandatory by 2020, has had teething problems. This is mainly due to its susceptibility to third-party spoofing, the reporting of false airport positions, as it publicly broadcasts aircraft positions. NASA researchers have suggested this privacy problem could be overcome by implementing cryptography.

The new Aviation Blockchain Infrastructure (ABI), based on Hyperledger Fabric and smart contracts, would allow control over what data is shared publicly or privately with authorized entities.

NASA has been making blockchain history since its announcement last year that it would fund and co-run a research project utilizing Ethereum blockchain smart contracts in safeguarding deep space travel. That project focused specifically on implementing the technology in improving space communications, ensuring navigations that take place are safer and more efficient. Even earlier in 2017, NASA awarded a USD 330,000 grant to support the development of a blockchain-based spacecraft system.

Cryptocurrencies will surge moving forward according to Etoro managing director and cryptocurrency expert Iqbal Gandham. He is convinced that a greater understanding of cryptocurrency’s underlying technology will create a rally in Bitcoin and other digital currencies this year. Speaking on Sky News, Gandham still feels that “Bitcoin is the so-called ‘daddy’ of the crypto-asset market”, …

Cryptocurrencies will surge moving forward according to Etoro managing director and cryptocurrency expert Iqbal Gandham. He is convinced that a greater understanding of cryptocurrency’s underlying technology will create a rally in Bitcoin and other digital currencies this year.

Gandham suggested that the 2018 80% decline in the value of Bitcoin from USD 20,000 to USD 4,000 is insignificant movement and belies the fact that development in the industry is surging. He said:

“If you have a look at the amount of developers and the development happening in the underlying blockchain technology and also Bitcoin, it is increasing. It hasn’t declined… if people understand the technology rather than just view the price point – they will understand that this is not something that is just going to go away.”

Misha Libman, co-founder of blockchain art laboratory Snark.art, said any attempts to predict the value of Bitcoin was futile and basically a waste of time commenting:

“Every morning I wake up reading about the rise and decline of crypto and I am fascinated by the incredibly technical and visually sophisticated graphs predicting its future that borderline an art project.”

Libman’s view is that blockchain and cryptocurrency are the future, but there will be forces beyond Bitcoin that create its fluctuation price volatility; factors that have no real connection with cryptocurrencies place in the future of financial markets. He argues:

“Ultimately we are dealing with a new technology and new asset that is highly speculative, illiquid, and elusive, and drivers for its rise and fall is anyone’s guess and can be attributed by the media… the rollercoaster volatility that we are seeing today is something we are going to have to live with for a while until we will start using crypto to buy chewing gum.”

The exposure of bitcoin and altcoins as alternate means of transfer of value is spreading like a wildfire, still, the adoption rate is quite incomparable to the level of awareness. Two influential authors have taken a rather unconventional route – being outside the cryptocurrency space to exploring the subject of Bitcoin. Tony Robbins, an influential …

The exposure of bitcoin and altcoins as alternate means of transfer of value is spreading like a wildfire, still, the adoption rate is quite incomparable to the level of awareness. Two influential authors have taken a rather unconventional route – being outside the cryptocurrency space to exploring the subject of Bitcoin.

Tony Robbins, an influential life coach and author of bestselling ‘Awaken the giant within’ – sold over 2 million copies – recently took to Twitter and directed his 3 million+ followers to an article written by Team Tony describing Bitcoin in a simple language for the layperson to grasp. The article was written when bitcoin was USD 9,979 and from the tweet, a few have engaged showing conversance with the subject.

Indeed, according to the article, “trying to explain bitcoin is like trying to explain the Internet to someone in the 80s,” this has become a common analogy to establish a baseline reference for the nascent technology behind bitcoin – blockchain. However, the article did a good job explaining what the technology is all about and how the cryptocurrency functions as a decentralized currency and “like other currencies and commodities,” its usage are relative to supply, demand and perceived value.

Another prominent influencer, author and professor at the University of Toronto Jordan B. Peterson, a clinical psychologist who sold over 2 million copies of his latest book ‘12 Rules for Life’, recently included a bitcoin address to his website for donation purposes.

Peterson’s experience stemmed from the fact that “MC/Visa/PayPal/Patreon [are] transforming themselves into censors?” He began looking for alternatives to subscription content service Patreon after a recent incident involving a ban without prior warning to a video creator with over 800,000 subscribers. He, having over 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube decided to source for alternative crowdfunding solutions.

These eye-opening events are a few of the countless Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exposures happening around the globe daily. More people are finding their way to the subject of the decentralized economy and asset handling.

Remarkably, a sum total of about 4 million subscribers from these two influential authors alone would have been exposed to the subject at some point and would begin considering the reality of a decentralized economy – that is for those not already onboard.

Cryptocurrency users are beginning to realize that no matter which part of the world they call home, the taxman has woken up to the fact that there is government revenue to be harvested from these digital assets. Many countries are beginning to revise tax laws to incorporate cryptocurrency profits into end-of-year declarations. This is a …

Cryptocurrency users are beginning to realize that no matter which part of the world they call home, the taxman has woken up to the fact that there is government revenue to be harvested from these digital assets.

Many countries are beginning to revise tax laws to incorporate cryptocurrency profits into end-of-year declarations. This is a time of confusion for many in the US as a lot of crypto dabblers and more serious investors are still not clear on how to go about filing tax returns which include cryptocurrency assets.

Node 40 software allows users to integrate their wallets and cryptocurrency exchanges used by them over the course of the tax year to calculate what needs to be reported. Woodin and Ryan argue it is worth knowing what is declarable to avoid strife further down the track, caused by a simple lack of the basic facts.

“If people are transacting in digital currency, it’s important that anyone understands that there’s a tax obligation on their part. Whether they’re paying their taxes or whether they’re day traders trying to make it big in the crypto world – it doesn’t matter. Any time you’re interacting with digital currency, it’s important that people understand there is a tax liability.”

Converting Bitcoin to goods or services or exchanging BTC to other cryptocurrencies could incur a tax. This is useful information with the IRS on the warpath, having warned of a coup this year. The main problem in filing a 2018 1099-K form according to Woodin and Ryan is for those that have made significant losses due to fall in cryptocurrency prices, they will need to balance declaring such losses to write off a tax liability with the risk of drawing annual scrutiny by the IRS, “…giving the tax authorities much better visibility of people’s crypto involvement.”

Woodin and Ryan maintain the IRS will get sharper as they adapt emerging technologies requiring their own discrete measures, but people would be a lot happier paying these taxes if they had an easier means to do so, one that cuts through all those complicated numbers, and saves all that confusion.

University of Cambridge Judge Business School has published the second of its annual reports which examine the cryptoconomy. It’s been a huge year following the first report, with Bitcoin reaching such grand heights offering a pre- Christmas surprise for 2017 investors, to the travails of pre-Christmas 2018, which has investors not knowing whether to hold …

University of Cambridge Judge Business School has published the second of its annual reports which examine the cryptoconomy.

It’s been a huge year following the first report, with Bitcoin reaching such grand heights offering a pre- Christmas surprise for 2017 investors, to the travails of pre-Christmas 2018, which has investors not knowing whether to hold or sell.

Less encouraging perhaps is the fact that around two-thirds of specialized custodial exchanges do not have a refund procedure in the case of customer funds getting lost or stolen; a message that might not be so warmly appreciated. More encouragingly, it has been estimated that crypto businesses are improving and doing a solid job of asset storage with over 80% of funds now being held in cold storage, out of sight and protected from hackers.

The report also revealed that 80% of crypto firms have become cagey when it comes to divulging the results of security audits; not good news for investors who would like to know exactly how companies entrusted with their assets actually operate.

Many universities now run courses, up to a Masters degree, on the subject of cryptocurrency and associated technology.

Judge Business School is a provider of management education and is consistently ranked as one of the world’s top business schools, with the Cambridge MBA program ranked among the top in the world by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, Business Insider, US News & World Report and Forbes Magazine.

French President Emmanuel Macron is seeing his popularity wane by the day due to his planned reforms for business and industry but new technologies appear to be flourishing under the current government, regardless of current discontentment. Blockchain, in particular, has been earmarked and the latest news of IBM’s new initiatives and investments which should bring …

French President Emmanuel Macron is seeing his popularity wane by the day due to his planned reforms for business and industry but new technologies appear to be flourishing under the current government, regardless of current discontentment.

Perhaps a hint of this shifting focus towards new technologies by a Macron government was the dabbling with taxation this year, with the government finally settling on dropping the tax on cryptocurrency to 17%… for the time being. Clearly, the government doesn’t want to stifle an industry which it is now openly promoting, suggesting that it should now benefit from an EUR 500 million state handout.

She also cited the certification of diplomas or administrative documents as potential use cases. France’s Prime Minister Édouard Philippe is another sold on blockchain although taking some criticism on the subject of allowing Bitcoin to be dispersed in tabacs around France via a ticketing system. In other areas, he’s on safer ground:

Carrefour was the first to set the blockchain clock ticking with its produce monitoring program being introduced into some of its supermarkets earlier this year, a move recently followed in Spain.

The multi-party suggestion that France should receive massive financial banking to promote blockchain has occurred according to De la Raudière because she believes that she is not alone in wanting to see France as a leader rather than a follower in Europe. She argues, “France must have a conquering philosophy on the subject with the State in the first place, both as a user and federator of projects.”

Other suggestions coming from the recent parliamentary report highlight a call for the opening of bank accounts for blockchain-centered businesses which must register with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French stock market regulator.

Recent reports indicate that rather than course numbers dropping due to a market down, the numbers of potential new entrants into the cryptocurrency space from other sectors are swelling. With top blockchain developers in the US pulling down salaries above USD 250,000, it is hardly surprising that the recent cryptocurrency bear market has done little …

For many, the main route into the burgeoning fintech space has now become via a growing range of courses being offered by major universities and business schools around the world.

Courses are now on offer from far and wide whether it be in the Scottish Highlands, Ivy League Cornell and Stanford in New England or in sunny Cyprus. For those wanting a cultural slant on life for a short period, Saint Petersburg’s State University of Economics and Moscow’s Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) also both run blockchain technology courses. However, there is already a waiting list.

Professor David Yermack from NYC Stern School of Business came early to the university’s MBA program for blockchain and cryptocurrency education. His class has already doubled over the past year and as a result, he has had to move his lectures to a larger auditorium to cater for the swelling numbers at Stern.

The prestigious New York University first established its School of Accounts and Finance in 1900; Stern is one of the oldest and most prestigious business schools in the world. It is also a founding member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

Some 22% of the universities offered more than one course, with Stanford listing ten classes and Cornell nine. The National University of Singapore ranked highest of the non-US universities with five blockchain-related courses. The US universities were far more likely to offer related courses than those abroad; just 5 of the 18 non-US institutions offered such classes.

Finding a place at one of these and other universities won’t get easier though, particularly in the light of tech recruitment sites such as Toptal reporting a 700% increase in demand for skilled blockchain developers since the beginning of last year.

The likes of billionaire Tim Draper who is never short of making upbeat predictions regarding cryptocurrencies are not mainstream investors and are their observations are unlikely to have their desired impact on markets. This is not to say that the next run on crypto markets could be a huge surge towards Bitcoin’s heady highs of 2017. This …

Novogratz claims have done rather well from investing in cryptocurrency but the key is how much has he been able to lose. He stated in 2017 that 20% of his net worth was in Bitcoin and Ethereum, claiming that he made USD 250 million from cryptocurrency from 2016-2017.

It is worth considering then, the other 80% of his non-crypto assets. Like Tim Draper and any sensible investor, he diversified his investment portfolios early on, thereby enabling him to take the sort of hits that would be terminal for most other cryptocurrency investors.

Draper, holding an MBA from Harvard Business School, comes from a long line of banking venture capitalists and is far too canny to be totally crypto-asset dependent; another who can ride any storm with a 100% guarantee of survival.

Jim Breyer, a billionaire venture capitalist, added that the world’s best computer scientists are heading to the blockchain space and this is where the future lies:

“So many of the very best computer scientists and deep learning PhD students and postdocs are working on blockchain because they have so much fundamental interest in what blockchain can mean. You don’t want to bet against the best and brightest in the world.”

Cryptocurrencies are clearly not a fad, but those warnings about not overloading one’s cryptocurrency portfolio but maintaining a sensible split between crypto and fiat remain true, at least until the market stabilizes. Billionaires are quite happy spending other people’s money. It may be more advisable to listen to Wall St which tends to be far more stoic, based on what horse racing pundits would call “form”.

The form is that over the past nine years, Bitcoin has survived five bubble-crash-build-rally cycles seeing it fall by about 85% on average and then recover to a new all-time high. From USD 19,500, Bitcoin has dropped about 82% in value and the 85% point would be at around USD 2,950.

So, another drop towards this figure shouldn’t surprise, nor should a bull run following that level. Bitcoin could still be first past the post. It’s early days.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that cryptocurrency has the potential to turn Virtual Reality into a full-time job. Armstrong suggests that virtual spaces could create their own currencies or even make use of existing ones such as Bitcoin or Ethereum by integrating the means for users to spend crypto in the same way as …

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said that cryptocurrency has the potential to turn Virtual Reality into a full-time job.

Armstrong suggests that virtual spaces could create their own currencies or even make use of existing ones such as Bitcoin or Ethereum by integrating the means for users to spend crypto in the same way as they are currently using fiat.

“Perhaps we’ll see virtual bank buildings with pillars, virtual bank vaults that spin when you open them, and virtual tellers with glasses.” The exchange magnate, clearly a follower of the gaming and VR world added, “Ready Player One had a great visual of coins being collected in the game, and spilling out of characters when they were killed (leaving a big pile of loot on the ground).”

Clearly, Armstrong has seen the potential of turning VR ownership into the real thing via some of his own exchange-listed cryptocurrencies. But in reality, there’s still a long way to go – crossing the bridge from virtual into reality.

Armstrong appears to be in touch with the man on the street, if not through gaming and VR, then certainly in terms of what reality actually means for many of the world’s “have-nots” these days. This was shown by his recent personal $1 million giveaway through his charity project called GiveCrypto.

The project is a global enterprise which will give out cryptocurrency donations to worthy recipients, who will then be able to make personal choices in whether to keep their donations as cryptocurrency or exchange them for fiat. GiveCrypto wants to raise USD 10 million by the end of 2018 and grow to a fund of USD 1 billion over two years. Donations will hopefully come from wealthy donors who have amassed wealth through cryptocurrency, passing on their good fortunes to those in need of financial help. Suggested cryptocurrencies for donations are Bitcoin, Ripple, and Zcash.

Western Australia is having to reinvent itself after being the hub of Australia’s massive gold mining industry for years, and blockchain and cryptocurrency are beckoning. Mining in Western Australia, together with the petroleum industry in the state, accounted for 92% of the State’s and 41% of Australia’s income from total merchandise exports in 2015-16. The …

Western Australia is having to reinvent itself after being the hub of Australia’s massive gold mining industry for years, and blockchain and cryptocurrency are beckoning.

Mining in Western Australia, together with the petroleum industry in the state, accounted for 92% of the State’s and 41% of Australia’s income from total merchandise exports in 2015-16. The state hosted 111 principal mining projects and hundreds of smaller quarries and mines.

Over the past few years mining has taken a hit, but this is nothing new to West Australians who have lived in a boom-bust economy for years. Experts say it is on the brink of another mining boom with new projects and tens of thousands of jobs to be created in the next year. FMG, Rio Tinto and BHP are set to invest billions of dollars to recruiters struggling already to keep up with demand for workers.

New game in town

The state’s capital, Perth, on the banks of the meandering Swan River, has been both the beneficiary and the victim of the state’s boom-bust economic roller coaster, most recently affected by China’s own economy and its need for minerals. A new game in town which local business has taken to is the city’s Blockchain Center, a project created in order to push new technologies such as blockchain into business and public consciousnesses. Investors in Perth have been moving away from the state’s backbone traditional investments such as real estate and mining over the past 18 months towards developing technologies.

Perth Blockchain Center will allow startups to share resources and ideas with like-minded business personnel and entrepreneurs. Sam Lee is the brains behind the venture, which he hopes will encourage business to stay in the city by offering every resource that a blockchain startup might need. He points out:

“Whether it’s a retail investor or a developer interested in implementing the technology, a blockchain center as the knowledge hub has the access required to upskill the local ecosystem to ensure better outcomes through higher quality projects.”

Lee maintains that a problem for new startups in this field is frequently that such companies are unable to access capital, often driving them overseas for a more supportive business environment. The center plans to change this situation, encouraging these young start-ups to stay in town through its knowledgeable local support.

“…you see this massive influx of capital and funds into Bitcoin and its derivatives because people are looking for something other than traditional forms of investment… [our own crypto] would have all the beneficial aspects of a distributed networks, namely very fast transactions which will facilitate trade. However, it will be backed and supported by precious metals. So, there is a non-virtual aspect of it that will ensure its value.”